UW films are scheduled from 12-2; titles include a documentary on the Village Potters of Onda, produced by Prof. Robert Sperry;and Felicia, filmed by a young woman in her neighborhood in Watts, California.

Media Center technicians will be on hand, rolling out wizened 16mm film from the Educational Media Collection bunker and then projecting them in all of their deteriorating analog glory. While films are projected, they will simultaneously be digitized for preservation at the UW Libraries. Films will be played on a telecine, which looks like a traditional film projector but converts the film signal into a video signal, which goes through a computer, and is digitized.

These films (and about 4000 other titles) are part of the Educational Media Collection (EMC) which were previously held by UW’s Classroom Support Services in Kane Hall but were transferred to the Libraries Media Center in late 2008.

“The Media Center has been digitizing since mid-2009, as many UW professors, and researchers from afar, still want access to many of these titles,” said John Vallier, Head of Media Services. “While most of them were published and distributed some time ago, it is now extremely difficult to track down titles. In many cases we appear to have the only remaining copies.”

The University of Washington Libraries is a network of more than 17 libraries serving three campuses: Seattle, Bothell and Tacoma. Major facilities include Suzzallo and Allen Libraries, Odegaard Undergraduate Library and the Health Sciences Library, as well as subject-oriented libraries. For Libraries news, events and exhibits, visit http://www.lib.washington.edu/about/news